Dennis Potter

One of the leading English playwrights of the latter half of the 20th Century, as well as an intelligent, vigorous and important writer working in TV from the late 1960s until his death, Dennis Potter...
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Grease is the best. It's a classic in the world of movie musicals. Everyone has seen it, or at least a scene or two, at some point in their life. But there's a lot more to this 1978 film based on a musical set in the 1950's than you thought. We all know that Jeff Conaway (RIP) played Danny Zuko on Broadway and John Tavolta was Doody, but did you know Elvis was offered a role?
1. Elvis was initially offered a role in the film.
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It is believed he would play the Guardian Angel role, but he did not accept.
2. Grease is the highest-grossing film of 1978.
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Grease is the word.
3. In "Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee" they changed the reference and it has a freaky coincidence.
Paramount Pictures/GIPHY
In the stage play, the song had a reference to Sal Mineo, who was murdered in 1976. For the movie, they changed the lyric to "Elvis, Elvis, let me be! Keep that pelvis far from me!" In reference to Elvis Presley, who died the same day the scene was filmed. The day was August 16, 1977.
4. There is a little tribute to the Three Stooges in the film.
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The boys who played Doody (Barry Pearl), Sonny (Michael Tucci), and Putzie (Kelly Ward) all went to director Randal Kleiser with their idea and got it approved for the film during the bonfire scene.
5. All of the cast members were too old for high school.
GIPHY/Paramount Pictures
John Travolta was 23, Jeff Conaway was 26, and Stockard Channing was 33 (older than Dennis C. Stewart A.K.A. Crater face or Leo, Leader of the Scorpions, who was 30). The two closest to high school age were Lorenzo Lamas (Tom) and Dinah Manoff (Marty), they were both 19.
6. A "Hickey From Kenickie" was 100% real.
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Stockard Channing said in an interview that Jeff Conaway insisted on applying the hickeys himself.
7. "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was written after filming wrapped.
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The producers felt that Olivia Newton-John needed a huge ballad for the film. This song actually ended up receiving an Academy Award nomination.
8. In the stage production, "Greased Lighting" is not sung by Danny.
Paramount Pictures
It's sung by Kenickie, but John Travolta convinced the producers to let him sing it.
9. Danny's blue wind-breaker was a nod to James Dean.
Paramount Pictures/GIPHY
Like his red wind-breaker from Rebel Without A Cause (1955).
10. Lucille Ball is the reason her daughter was not cast as Rizzo and the part went to Stockard Channing.
Paramount Pictures/GIPHY
Lucie Arnaz was dropped from consideration after Lucille Ball called and said "I used to own that studio; my daughter's not doing a screen test!" But actually, she owned the studio Desilu which was bought by Paramount.
11. Cast members got sick from filming the drag race scene.
Paramount Pictures
When filming near the bridge, the water there was stagnant and dangerous, causing some of the cast to become ill from it's filth.
12. That fight scene between Rizzo and Kenickie would have made sense but...
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Paramount Pictures/bettyrizzos.tumblr.com
...the scene explaining it got cut. They filmed a scene, where the couple got into a heated argument, before the diner scene but it was pulled due to it's grittiness. It was compared to something Martin Scorsese might have directed.
13. The first time John Travolta met Olivia Newton-John was at her house.
Paramount Pictures/GIPHY
He was a huge fan of hers (he basically was the #1 supporter of her being Sandy) and was very star struck when he met her, having not reached a huge level of success yet.
14. During the filming of "Greased Lightning" Jeff Conaway injured his back.
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And the injury led to his abuse of prescription medication and downward path. He was dropped by fellow cast members during filming. This information was not publicly known until Conaway's appearance on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.
15. Olivia Newton-John's pants were so tight when filming "You're The One That I Want," that the zipper was broken.
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She had to be sewn into her pants every morning.
16. John Travolta had to talk Olivia into filming that song.
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Paramount Pictures/cameronsfryes.tumblr.com
She admit on the Merv Griffin Show that she was terrified of it.
17. Jeff Conaway came up with the idea of how to blow off Danny and Kenickie's hug.
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Conaway said that in 50's, two guys hugging, "forget about it!" So he suggested that after, they comb their hair and pretend it never happened.
18. The film takes place in 1958.
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20 years before the actual release date on June 1, 1978 (in the U.S.).
19. In the stage production of the show, Sandy's last name is Dumbrowski.
Paramount Pictures/GIPHY
But because Olivia Newton-John was cast, they changed her background to match her Australian one.
20. One song cut from the film is actually played in the background.
Paramount Pictures/GIPHY
The "Alma Mater/Parody" instrumental from the stage version of Grease can be heard in the office on the last day of school and during the carnival scenes.
21. It took a week to shoot the dance contest.
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They were on location in a real school at the time in downtown L.A. Originally Sandy was not intended to dance in this scene, it was meant to be just Danny and Cha Cha. It was reputedly 116 degrees during filming. Several extras suffered heat-related illness.
22. But it took only one day to film "You're The One That I Want"/the end scene.
Paramount Pictures
It was filmed with a traveling carnival that was there only for the day. The next day, director Randal Kleiser wanted to film some extra close-ups, but the carnival had left, so they had to recreate pieces of that set to accomplish it.
23. Olivia Newton-John attended the premiere in a prom dress.
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And then for the after party, she changed into her "Sandy 2" look, which was hot pink spandex.
24. That plastic wrap moment in "Greased Lighting" is actually a reference to condoms.
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Yup.
25. There was a planned sequel, by the title Summer School, completely different from Grease 2.
GIPHY
Paramount later nixed the idea and we sadly got Grease 2 in 1982. This orignal sequel plan grew out of Coach Calhoun's line "See you in summer school" to a student before he is hit with a pie in the carnival scene near the end.
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Daniel Radcliffe arrived early for his appearance on U.S. chat show Conan on Thursday (06Nov14), so he could check out the Harry Potter museum on the Warner Bros. lot.
The young Brit had never found the time to visit any of the Potter museums around the world and he was thrilled when he realized he'd be able to tour the collection in Burbank, California without any embarrassing encounters with fans.
Radcliffe says, "Harry Potter museums are a strange place for me to visit... so it was great. It was completely empty. "There was my costume from the second film and as soon as I saw it I remembered thinking, 'That was the time we started using rubberized blood for continuity, so it stayed the same all the time'. I was like, 'I wonder if it's still there?' and I touched it and it was still there and it was a cool moment of being taken back 12 years."

WENN
You may or may not have seen this, but Daniel Radcliffe was recently on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, to promote his film Horns. That was nice and all, we're very excited for the film. But something more important happened. He rapped. It was life-changing.
Daniel rapped Blackalicious' "Alphabet Aerobics" so flawlessly, it actually took our breath away. Why has he spent the last 15 years acting? Why has he been hiding this talent from us all? Daniel, please, we beg of you, quit acting and becoming a rapper ASAP.
You need to watch the video to get the full effect:
YouTube/NBC
No offense to your acting skills Daniel, we love them very much, but we think this is the career path you should be on. We are willing to support you 100% if you choose to become a hardcore rapper. We're prepared to hear your first mixtape and we will bump your rhymes on our boom boxes.
Who else would give anything to see Daniel pursue a rap career? Tweet us your suggestions for his rap name!
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When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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After Dark Films
It seems a bit odd to take on a movie review of Courtney Solomon's Getaway, as only in the loosest terms is Getaway actually a movie. We begin without questions — other than a vague and frustrating "What the hell is going on?" — and end without answers, watching Ethan Hawke drive his car into things (and people) for the hour and a half in between. We learn very little along the way, probed to engage in the mystery of the journey. But we don't, because there's no reason to.
There's not a single reason to wonder about any of the things that happen to Hawke's former racecar driver/reformed criminal — forced to carry out a series of felonious commands by a mysterious stranger who is holding his wife hostage — because there doesn't seem to be a single ounce of thought poured into him beyond what he see. We learn, via exposition delivered by him to gun-toting computer whiz Selena Gomez, that he "did some bad things" before meeting the love of his life and deciding to put that all behind him. Then, we stop learning. We stop thinking. We start crashing into police cars and Christmas trees and power plants.
Why is Selena Gomez along for the ride? Well, the beginnings of her involvement are defensible: Hawke is carrying out his slew of vehicular crimes in a stolen car. It's her car. And she's on a rampage to get it back. But unaware of what she's getting herself into, Gomez confronts an idling Hawke with a gun, is yanked into the automobile, and forced to sit shotgun while the rest of the driver's "assignments" are carried out. But her willingness to stick by Hawke after hearing his story is ludicrous. Their immediate bickering falls closer to catty sexual tension than it does to genuine derision and fear (you know, the sort of feelings you'd have for someone who held you up or forced you into accessorizing a buffet of life-threatening crimes).
After Dark Films
The "gradual" reversal of their relationship is treated like something we should root for. But with so little meat packed into either character, the interwoven scenes of Hawke and Gomez warming up to each other and becoming a team in the quest to save the former's wife serve more than anything else as a breather from all the grotesque, impatient, deliberately unappealing scenes of city wreckage.
And as far as consolidating the mystery, the film isn't interested in that either, as evidenced by its final moments. Instead of pressing focus on the answers to whatever questions we may have, the movie's ultimate reveal is so weak, unsubstantial, and entirely disconnected to the story entirely, that it seems almost offensive to whatever semblance of a film might exist here to go out on this note. Offensive to the idea of film and story in general, as a matter of fact. But Getaway isn't concerned with these notions. Not with story, character, logic, or humanity. It just wants to show us a bunch of car crashes and explosions. So you'd think it might have at least made those look a little better.
1/5
More Reviews:'The Hunt' Is Frustrating and Fantastic'You're Next' Amuses and Occasionally Scares'Short Term 12' Is Real and Miraculous
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Harry Potter star Warwick Davis has joined the cast of comedy musical Spamalot in London's West End. The actor will make his West End debut when he takes on the role of Patsy on 23 September (13).
Davis, who also appeared in the Star Wars movies and cult fantasy film Willow, reveals he jumped at the chance to play a part in the Monty Python production: "As a kid I was always a massive fan of Monty Python so when Spamalot came to town I thought, 'I'd really love to be in that'. And now I'm excited that I'm actually not just in it, but playing the lead role.
"I've been in hit TV shows and blockbuster Hollywood movies, but you are never really taken seriously as an actor until you've done a play."
He'll join comedian and British TV personality Les Dennis, who will take on the role of King Artur in the production.

The stars of cult British TV drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet are to reunite for a special event marking the show's 30th anniversary later this year (13). The black comedy, which followed the exploits of a group of British construction workers on jobs overseas, first hit screens in the U.K. in November, 1983.
It became an instant hit and made household names of its seven stars, including Harry Potter actor Timothy Spall, and the show went on to enjoy a hugely successful revival in 2002.
A convention event is being planned in Newcastle, England - where many of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet's characters were based - to celebrate the anniversary, and several big names connected with the programme will attend.
Tim Healy, who played team leader Dennis Patterson, show creator Franc Roddam, and writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are confirmed for the charity event, and several other stars are expected to attend.
Healy says, "Thirty years, I can't believe where it's gone. We're having a brickies' gala dinner and a charity auction with all the money going to the Sunday for Sammy Trust... It will be a great night."
The weekend-long convention, which will include a tour of locations used in the show, is due to take place in September (13).

When you think about cherries, you probably think about pie. Or maybe you think about sex — specifically, the time some girl tried to tie a cherry stem with her tongue, but then failed, and it was hilarious. You could be thinking about a Shirley Temple cocktail... but you probably aren't, since it doesn't have any alcohol (so why would you?). Or, if you're like me, and don't think about cherries at all. Ever. Because cherries scare the sh*t out of you.
I was forced to think about the devil's fruit when I heard that it plays a role in the new supernatural thriller, Mama. (You've heard of it, it's with Jessica Chastain.) And since I heard this rumor from a reliable source, who actually did see an early screening of the movie, I'm going to take a back seat. There's no way I'm voluntarily going to see another movie featuring those nasty pits. But in case you're wondering, here's the gist: two feral girls (ew) are inexplicably fed cherries (ew) for the five years they lived alone in a cabin in the woods with Mama. That's all they eat. So, when they're eventually discovered, they find them and a huge pile of pits (ew). The younger one continues to eat them (ew) after they re-enter society, and the director routinely cuts to her sucking down cherries (ew) and spitting out the pits (ew). If that's not enough to deter you from the film (but really, go see it! I hear it's quite good) then I don't know what is.
Oh wait! Yes I do! You see, this isn't the first time cherries have caused deep fear and unease on the big screen. And it's no coincidence these twisted directors keep choosing cherries as their supporting stars. There's a reason I won't go near them at bodegas. There's a reason I cringe at even a jarred maraschino. There's a reason I want to set fire to all cherry-printed apparel. And now I live a life of sad cherry-less ice cream sundaes.
It all stemmed (ha) from The Witches of Eastwick. You know, that crazy-ass fantasy movie with Jack Nicholson and Cher (!) and some other great people, and a whole bunch of spells and stuff. Well, it was entertaining — and even light-hearted — until someone tried to mess with Nicholson's character Daryl Van Horne. People should know better than to mess with him by now. Anyway, one woman (her name was Felicia, like it matters) decides that he's the devil, and begins ranting about him to her husband. Shortly after, she starts vomiting cherry stones. Don't remember? Go ahead, try and watch.
Then there was Cold Creek Manor with Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone. They both seem like nice people who would be in a nice movie. But it's not nice a movie. It's not nice because of the cherries! In one horrid scene, Dennis Quaid visits the original owner of Cold Creek Manor (yes, that was actually Christopher Plummer) in a mental hospital. He's a senile lunatic who can't stop cramming chocolate covered cherries in his mouth. "Gimme another cherry! Gimme another cherry!" That's his famous line, and it's beyond frightening.
And if you still haven't been totally grossed out (who are you?), take a look at the trailer for this endearing film, Cherry Falls, about a small town murderer who kills all the virgins of the local high school. It's quite pleasant!
I never intended to scare you away from eating cherries altogether (yes I did), but please do bear this bit of information in mind the next time you hear about a cherry cameo in a film. Just know it won't be sexy at all.
[Image Credit: George Kraychyk/Universal Pictures]
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Forget that the latest adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's sweeping romance novel comes from the man who brought us the slick-but-stuffy Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. Every frame of director Joe Wright's Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold overflowing with visual spectacle and roaring performances. Keira Knightley Jude Law Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the rest of the cast fit perfectly in the high drama epic but it's really Wright's playground. Following Hanna an artful spin on the action movie Wright returns to the period drama but injects it with dazzling daring choices. A book like Anna Karenina could once fit in reality but its larger-than-life legacy precedes it. Wright acknowledges that from frame one approaching the film like a grand ballet or opera where grand gestures broad emotions and overt theatrics are commonplace. That vision clicks transforming Anna Karenina into an exhilarating moviegoing experience.
The storyline of Anna Karenina isn't far off from a daytime soap: It's 1874 and Anna (Knightley) is floating through existence as the wife of influential government player Karenin (Law). But when her brother Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) summons her to Moscow to save his marriage Anna's entire world is shaken up. She meets Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson) a cavalry hunk who finds himself smitten with the taken lady. She's in the same boat: The two strike up a flirtatious relationship that evolves into one of sexual passion. A scandalous affair would incite trouble in the preset day but in the 19th century it's the ultimate crime. Quickly Anna's life comes crumbling down.
The intertwining melodrama of Anna Karenina earned the novel its classic status but Wright uses the material as a launching pad for imagination rather than a tome to translate to screen. Many of the scenes are staged in a theater creating an instant awareness of the production. Sets shift and are reconstructed into new rooms; actors costume change in the span of single shots; action sequences like a thrilling horse race are conducted on stage with special effects you might see on Broadway. Wright works this sort of stylization in the other direction too; a character could walk an empty stage open a door and suddenly be on a snow-covered hill. Anna Karenina isn't the first film to use the effect but in Wright's hands it's exhilarating.
The movie is Wright's third collaboration with Knightley and easily their most successful. Knightley never struggles to stay on the same page as the heightened material whether she's nailing a dance sequence or breaking down in a flood of tears. Casting an ensemble around Knightley is no easy task but Taylor-Johnson gives his best work yet as the debonair love interest and Macfadyen steals the show with moments of physical comedy.
We have expectations of the texture and structure of period romances. Anna Karenina defies them. Masterpiece Theater it is not.

David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas consists of six stories set in various periods between 1850 and a time far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future. Each segment lives on its own the previous first person account picked up and read by a character in its successor creating connective tissue between each moment in time. The various stories remain intact for Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) Lana Wachowski's and Andy Wachowski's (The Matrix) film adaptation which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The massive change comes from the interweaving of the book's parts into one three-hour saga — a move that elevates the material and transforms Cloud Atlas in to a work of epic proportions.
Don't be turned off by the runtime — Cloud Atlas moves at lightning pace as it cuts back and forth between its various threads: an American notary sailing the Pacific; a budding musician tasked with transcribing the hummings of an accomplished 1930's composer; a '70s-era investigatory journalist who uncovers a nefarious plot tied to the local nuclear power plant; a book publisher in 2012 who goes on the run from gangsters only to be incarcerated in a nursing home; Sonmi~451 a clone in Neo Seoul who takes on the oppressive government that enslaves her; and a primitive human from the future who teams with one of the few remaining technologically-advanced Earthlings in order to survive. Dense but so was the unfamiliar world of The Matrix. Cloud Atlas has more moving parts than the Wachowskis' seminal sci-fi flick but with additional ambition to boot. Every second is a sight to behold.
The members of the directing trio are known for their visual prowess but Cloud Atlas is a movie about juxtaposition. The art of editing is normally a seamless one — unless someone is really into the craft the cutting of a film is rarely a post-viewing talking point — but Cloud Atlas turns the editor into one of the cast members an obvious player who ties the film together with brilliant cross-cutting and overlapping dialogue. Timothy Cavendish the elderly publisher could be musing on his need to escape and the film will wander to the events of Sonmi~451 or the tortured music apprentice Robert Frobisher also feeling the impulse to run. The details of each world seep into one another but the real joy comes from watching each carefully selected scene fall into place. You never feel lost in Cloud Atlas even when Tykwer and the Wachowskis have infused three action sequences — a gritty car chase in the '70s a kinetic chase through Neo Seoul and a foot race through the forests of future millennia — into one extended set piece. This is a unified film with distinct parts echoing the themes of human interconnectivity.
The biggest treat is watching Cloud Atlas' ensemble tackle the diverse array of characters sprinkled into the stories. No film in recent memory has afforded a cast this type of opportunity yet another form of juxtaposition that wows. Within a few seconds Tom Hanks will go from near-neanderthal to British gangster to wily 19th century doctor. Halle Berry Hugh Grant Jim Sturgess Jim Broadbent Ben Whishaw Hugo Weaving and Susan Sarandon play the same game taking on roles of different sexes races and the like. (Weaving as an evil nurse returning to his Priscilla Queen of the Desert cross-dressing roots is mind-blowing.) The cast's dedication to inhabiting their roles on every level helps us quickly understand the worlds. We know it's Halle Berry behind the fair skinned wife of the lunatic composer but she's never playing Halle Berry. Even when the actors are playing variations on themselves they're glowing with the film's overall epic feel. Jim Broadbent's wickedly funny modern segment a Tykwer creation that packs a particularly German sense of humor is on a smaller scale than the rest of the film but the actor never dials it down. Every story character and scene in Cloud Atlas commits to a style. That diversity keeps the swirling maelstrom of a movie in check.
Cloud Atlas poses big questions without losing track of its human element the characters at the heart of each story. A slower moment or two may have helped the Wachowskis' and Tykwer's film to hit a powerful emotional chord but the finished product still proves mainstream movies can ask questions while laying over explosive action scenes. This year there won't be a bigger movie in terms of scope in terms of ideas and in terms of heart than Cloud Atlas.
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Title

First screenplay based on original work written by someone else, "Gorky Park"

Became TV critic for THE SUNDAY TIMES of London

Turned to TV writing in the 1960s

Raised in the west of England, near Wales

Family moved to London when Potter was 14 (date approximate)

First produced play, "Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton"

Wrote and produced documentaries after he graduated from college as part of the current affairs department of the BBC; one of the first was "Between Two Rivers" (1960), about the area of his upbringing, which he narrated as well as wrote

Theatrical feature film directing debut, "Secret Friends"; also Potter's last feature film work

BBC asked him to rewrite the teleplay, "Almost Cinderella", in which Prince Charming kills Cinderella at midnight by strangling her

Wrote first screenplay, "Pennies From Heaven", based on his own 1976 TV play

Wrote first BBC teleplays, "The Confidence Courses", "Stand Up Nigel Barton"

Penned the popular TV miniseries "Pennies From Heaven", which interpolated recordings from the 1930s and 1940s into the action, reflecting the thoughts and feelings of the characters

Directing debut, "Blackeyes", a BBC-TV production which was shown at several film festivals (also wrote)

Episodes of psoriatic arthropathy which afflicted him for the rest of his life first appeared at age 26, causing intense burning sensations on the skin, extensive blistering, swelled joints, periods of delirium and leaving his hands permanently clenched (

Worked for the London newspaper, THE DAILY HERALD; began as a feature writer, later worked as TV critic

Completed last works for TV shortly before his death, the miniseries "Karaoke" and the TV-movie "Cold Lazarus"

Wrote first novel, "The Glittering Coffin"

TV play, "Brimstone and Treacle" filmed, but, due to controversy, did not air until 1987

Ran unsuccessfully as the Labour Party candidate for East Hertfordshire in the general election

Summary

One of the leading English playwrights of the latter half of the 20th Century, as well as an intelligent, vigorous and important writer working in TV from the late 1960s until his death, Dennis Potter adapted several of his works for film as well, contributing original screenplays for "Gorky Park" (1983), "Dreamchild" (1985) and "Track 29" (1987). Beginning as a newspaper journalist and TV critic, he wrote and produced documentaries for the BBC in the early 1960s. He showed an early interest in politics with his two "Nigel Barton" plays as well as his unsuccessful attempt to run for political office as a Labour Party candidate. It was also around this time that the handicap which would plague Potter from then on first appeared: psoriatic arthropathy, a skin disorder which caused frequent blistering, burning sensations, swelling of the joints, a permanent clenching of the fists and even bouts of delirium.<p>A vivid writer unafraid to make overt political points in his TV writing, Potter also possessed a keen imagination and a delicious if sometimes controversial flair for the perverse. The BBC, for instance, insisted that he rewrite a teleplay, "Almost Cinderella" (1966), which had Prince Charming strangling Cinderella at the stroke of midnight. Perhaps his most controversial work, though, was "Brimstone and Treacle" (1976), a story of a comatose young woman who revives after being raped by the Devil, which the BBC sat on for 11 years before airing it.<p>Potter's work, did not, however, achieve its widest attention or acclaim at home (or even recognition in the US) until the appearance of his six-part musical TV drama, "Pennies from Heaven" (1976), in which recordings of popular songs from the 1940s were used as an inventive and ironic means of commenting on the narrative. The English version, which starred Bob Hoskins, was semi-effectively transferred to the American screen by Herbert Ross in 1981 with Steve Martin in the leading role of a sheet music traveling salesman.<p>Potter was similarly acclaimed for "The Singing Detective", a multi-layered, semi-autobiographical drama in which the hallucinatory hospital experiences of an ailing author (like Potter suffering from a chronic, debilitating skin disease) mirror the adventures of one of his fictional protagonists. The success of the miniseries led to its release in theatrical form in the US in 1989.<p>Potter made his theatrical directorial debut with the convoluted, cerebral "Secret Friends" (1992), based on his novel "Ticket to Ride", about an illustrator who experiences a mental breakdown while commuting on a train to London. Shortly before his death from cancer at age 59, Potter completed two more TV works, the miniseries "Karaoke" and the TV-movie, "Cold Lazarus", in which he again explores, via vivid metaphors and a sure feel for intelligent, innovative entertainment, the pains, constraints and hypocrisies of society and the roles it requires people to play.

Name

Role

Comments

Margaret Constance Potter

Mother

Margaret Morgan

Wife

married in 1959; died of breast cancer nine days before Potter

Walter Potter

Father

Jane Potter

Daughter

born c. 1959; survived him

Sarah Potter

Daughter

born c. 1961; worked for her father as his secretary; head of Whistling Gypsy, a production company; survived him

Robert Potter

Son

survived him

Education

Name

New College, Oxford University

Notes

"I'm not interested in naturalistic cinema which is basically what most cinema is--like looking through a window. I think it should be about that little theater on your shoulders. Past and present jostle in you all the time: You are what you have been and what you want to be." --Dennis Potter in New York Post, February 12, 1992.

"I despise autobiography. I used the surface details--places, knowledge of myself--to make it feel as if it's nearly autobiographical, but it isn't." --Dennis Potter in New York Post, February 12, 1992.

The iconoclastic Potter, in typical form, on the subject of religion:

"God's a rumor, if you like. Christianity or indeed any other religion that is a religion because of fear of death or hope that there is something beyond death does not interest me. What kind of cruel old bugger is God if it's terror that is the ruling edifice, the structure of religion? And too often, for too many people, it is. Now that to me isn't religion ... Religion to me has always been the wound, not the bandage. I don't see the point of not acknowledging the pain and the misery and the grief of the world, and if you say, 'Ah, but God understands' or through that you come to a greater appreciation, I then think, 'That's not God, that's not my God, that's now how I see God.' I see God ... if I see God at all, as shreds and particles and rumors, some knowledge that we have, some feeling why we sing and dance, and act, why we paint, why we love, why make art." --From his last interview in The New York Times, June 12, 1994.

Speaking about Potter after his death, with his last completed works for TV, "Karaoke" and "Cold Lazarus", having moved into pre-production, David Bianculli of the Daily News (June 8, 1994) wrote: "Regardless of the eventual quality of those final two works, Potter already deserves acknowledgment as the finest TV writer in history. Not just in England, or even of his generation, but ever. Better, even, than Paddy Chayefsky or Rod Serling."

From his mid-20s Potter had suffered from inherited psoriatic arthropathy, a devastating recurring illness that seems to boil the skin and meld the joints and incite the fevered delirium experienced by "The Singing Detective" during his hallucinatory interludes.